It's Time to Control Your Light Environment

I know this concept is not new to some of you but for others it may be the first time you are hearing about light and how it can affect your health. Its a really complicated topic but I will begin to break it down for you and hopefully you can start with some basics to change your light environment and begin to feel better.

Imagine life a thousand years ago. You live with your ancestors in whatever land your lineage is from. This environment will look so much different that where you live today. Entirely different. When you wake up in the morning it is in a more rustic dwelling made with natural material that you continue to maintain often as it is part of the earth around you and made of organic material. You have woken up in the morning laying on natural bedding that keeps you warm and this likely include some sort of animal hide. What would wake you up? There is no phone call or alarm set but naturally you wake up. There is light coming into the dwelling but there are no lamps or light overhead. You feel rested and ready to get up as nature beckons you. It is like this every single day. Every single day you get up naturally in the morning, in your natural dwelling, feeling rested and awake and ready to begin.

Why though? How?

Circadian Biology is how.

Circadian Biology is the process by which your human biology is aligned to function. It is the mechanism of our entire human function. It was then and it still is today.

We no longer live in a time where we live this way. Modern life has since replaced our houses with man made materials, electricity has changed our light environment, alarms and phones wake us up, and we often do not feel rested or awake at the hour we should. How could this matter? How important is Circadian Biology?

Well it matters the most and it is without a doubt the most important health alignment we have. The very existence of modern life has given us a slew of neolithic diseases never before seen by our ancestors. Our comfortable lifestyle does not align with the natural Circadian Cycle or our DNA. Every action of modern life has created a mismatch to our Circadian Biology and there are consequences.

We can dig deeper into this and we will but as we consider our ancestors and how they lived we can than align all the things back to nature as they had to shift the Circadian mismatch back into alignment.

First thing to consider is reducing junk light and increasing natural light.

Junk light is all artificial light and it has an effect on the messages your brain receives about your environment. Natural light is the sun. All of the sun and all of the rays. Every spectrum of the suns light is a code to our health perceived through our eyes and skin to regulate our biological rhythm. This singularly sets the stage for our biological function to understand the time of day and what you biology should be doing to function.

Reduce the amount of lights in your home. These just like the like from screens and computer are blue light and in its singular spectrum provides a message through our brains to our bodies. It is the wrong message. It is not a natural spectrum and in turn it creates confusion in the brain. All light that is artificial is a junk light team member. Open your curtains use as much natural light as you can. Reduce screen time and use blue blocking glasses to protect light through your eyes. When the sun goes down in the evening turn off overhead lights and reduce indoor lighting exposure. Red lighting is a great option and having some lamps whereby you may want to read or do activities and be helpful.

Increase the natural light. Go outside. Any time you can go out without glasses, contacts, or sunglasses. Allow the sunlight to penetrate your eyes and skin as much as possible. Don’t be afraid of the sun. Despite years of terrible messages that the sun is so dangerous we now have learned that this is not the case and that more sickness incurs from lack of sun. Cancer being the biggest concern we now have evidence that the sun can heal us. Vitamin D from the sun is an incredible component in protecting your health from viruses and disease- plenty of studies on that. Lack of vitamin D (likely due to lack of sunlight via sunblock and sunglasses) is at an all time high.

Most important time to get sunlight is morning and evening. Morning sun provides a full spectrum of light that triggers a cascade of biological responses in the body and information it needs to rise and be active for the day. The light code through our retina in our eyes messages our brain to a slew of biological responses that prepare our cells to function for “being awake” the same message is also an internal clock that codes back to our DNA exactly what time the body should then prepare for the evening ie. melatonin production.

These codes are so important because they are the messages for human function. The study of Quantum Biology has brought us to a whole new understanding of our our bodies function. This new level of scientific understanding is the most profound to date in how we function as we now have teased out very intricate cell function that was never really accounted for before. Cells are storage for light and function through frequency in cellular water called exclusion zone water. This singularly its such a huge topic that we will need to work on that information another time. However- the absorbing of light is very relevant here as we have never really consider this impact before in health or science.

It was only since the 1900s when light bulbs began their introduction into homes. This gives us only a short period of time whereby we have been exposed to indoor lighting to actually know what kind of negative effects it can have on our health!

Light is absorbed though our skin and gives code to our bodies about our environment. This light code also enters through the retina of the eye via the retinohypothalamic tract and directly connects with the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). This main track of light is a sensor for messaging biological instructions and code to the body. This has a huge impact on hormone synthesis and greatly melatonin.

Melatonin is a hormone that our bodies produce to regulate many things. Its most common know function is for sleep. Sunrise sunlight through the eye messages the body to dpwnregulate melatonin production and indicates a switch to produce biological responses that allow for functions akin to daytime. The light is a message system. This indication also has now indicated to the body what time the body will need it to produce melatonin later in the day for sleep function. See how simple the message is? Yet many people have destroyed the communication of these pathways and are biologically upside down. Commonly shift workers are experiencing some of the worst messaging. Aside from sleep melatonin plays a role in our immune system as well. Healthy light communication is written in our DNA as a way of cell communication and essential to our health. This disruption has been linked with a various fatigue, mental health, sleep disruptions, depression and bipolar disorders have also been linked to mismatched circadian pathways. https://www.proquest.com/openview/b6c5b575d59b494be5599695dcbcab60/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2026366&diss=y

Lets get the right light then!

First off the most basic thing you can begin to do is to take of the sunglasses. Yes I know you have sensitive eyes. I did too. I have to tell you that I had a huge collection of prescription sunglasses as I love accessories. I have gotten rid of them all. I consistently wore sunglasses even in the winter because I had sensitive eyes. I am proof positive you can do it. If you wear contacts or glasses to see than this can be more challenging however it can be done. The timing for full spectrum sunlight that indicates the proper code for time occurs most specifically 1 hour before and after the sunrise and sunset. Most important is to start the day with this light. Get up and use the timing to begin a exposure at minimum for 5 minutes (15 minutes would be better). Read about it here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546664/

Reducing the indoor lighting and increasing the natural light will have a profound impact on your health, circadian alignment and life in a variety of ways. The quantum understanding of this practice is an intricate and detailed version of how necessary sunlight is to our cellular function, mitochondria, and cellular hydration all of which dictate every single human function. This level of how the cells function and the relationship it has with sunlight is a very deep dive. I will save this for another day. But the experience you can have with your sleep, energy, mental health, and immune system will simply speak for itself. You don’t need to understand the intricacies of the biologic mechanism to find out that Circadian alignment is a real pathway to aligning all aspects of health.

Check out my resource page on my website for Bluelight Blocking glasses, Red light bulbs and nightlights I recommend along with discounts codes for purchase also my recommended reading section where you can begin your journey to understand this information on a deeper level.